Petitioning candidate Joe Visconti remains persistent in

gubernatorial bid
WEST HARTFORD >> He didn't arrive by horseback. He left the skateboard behind and the Pontiac
Grand Ville decked out with Colt revolvers is no longer on loan.
Joe Visconti, the quixotic candidate for governor, has used all those modes of transportation in the
YouTube videos he's posted in his low-budget, but persistent, quest to run the state, despite being
abandoned by the Tea Party leadership.
He arrived at an interview, sharply dressed and happy to talk, feeling good about his 9 percent
showing in the latest Quinnipiac Poll with Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Republican Tom
Foley in a dead heat.
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Visconti, 57, a one-term councilman from West Hartford, is running on a platform of Second
Amendment rights, an end to the Common Core standards, a promise to return undocumented
immigrants to their home countries and a fiscally conservative budget.
With the help of his "Dirty Dozen" supporters, a targeted audience and many days sitting outside
Hoffman's Gun Center in Newington, they were able to gather more than the 7,500 signatures
needed to get him on the ballot, running on his own name, not an easy task given the time
consuming state rules.
In a televised gubernatorial debate scheduled for Thursday in New London, Visconti, who remains a
registered Republican, will be on the stage with Malloy and Foley, giving him his first statewide
exposure.
The Foley campaign is balking at participating in an NBC sponsored debate on Oct. 23 with the
three candidates, which could see Malloy and Visconti one-on-one in that face-off.
Visconti has been running for 18 months, precisely since the state adopted the second strictest gun
laws in the country, banning assault-style weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines in the
wake of the killing of 20 first-graders and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown on Dec. 14, 2012.
His likely constituency, the Connecticut Civil Defense League, and the Tea Party have asked him to
step aside, fearful that he will take votes from Foley and allow Malloy to win a second term in office.
Foley has said he would sign a repeal of the gun laws if it was presented to him by the legislature, no
matter how unlikely that is, given the expectation that Democrats will continue to be the majority in
the General Assembly.
The Greenwich businessman said the reforms "inconvenienced" gun owners and it won't prevent
another Newtown, while Malloy has said it already has stopped a woman threatening to attack
another school from getting firearms.
Scott Wilson, president of the CCDL, said it would be a "fool's errand" to vote for Visconti, while
Connecticut Tea Party leader Tanya Bachand, in an open letter to him, said he is undermining all
they have done to advance their cause, particularly if he acts the spoiler and allows Malloy to win.
"We will get into the Governor's Mansion in due time. We must live to fight another day, but your
candidacy is tearing us apart. Consider what is happening on social media. We are sniping at each
other in full view of the public. Friends and allies are no longer speaking in civil tones, if they are
speaking at all," Bachand wrote.
In both the September and October Quinnipiac polls, whether Visconti was in the race or if it was
only a theoretical two-way contest, the distance between Malloy and Foley remained the same,
leaving Visconti with no impact.
Visconti was happy to see that in the October poll, he won 11 percent of the independent vote, 6
percent of the Republican vote and 9 percent from Democrats in the three-way contest.
With only 14 percent name-recognition, Visconti was thrilled too with his 10 percent showing among
women voters and said he was not surprised that more Democrats are with him than Republicans.
Being shut out of the last three debates, Visconti said if he was in them it would have driven his
numbers up, but he feels the increasingly contentious fight between Malloy and Foley hurts them.
"They had a chance to beat each other up pretty bad," he said.
Gary Rose, chairman of the department of government and politics at Sacred Heart University, said
the votes for Visconti mirror those he saw during the presidential campaigns of Ross Perot in 1992
and George Wallace in 1968, although in Connecticut they are on a much smaller scale.
He said Visconti's numbers suggest these are protest votes, rather than support for the "flamboyant
candidate."
"Clearly, Visconti's position on gun control and Common Core are diametrically opposite from those
of Governor Malloy, yet half of Visconti's base is from voters who otherwise would support the
governor. This is the politics of frustration that we are witnessing, rather than a logical and
reasoned form of voting behavior," Rose said.
Visconti feels his numbers among Democrats will hold and grow,
"We already knew the Democrats were coming over harder because there was a place to go. Many of
them believe what Tom Foley believes, but they won't vote for him for reasons that have to do with
personality, unwillingness to fight and unwillingness to specifically talk issues. There is a mistrust
because he won't do that," Visconti said. "He didn't sell them on openness and frankness."
Visconti said he is getting increasing emails from Republicans concerned about the tie between
Malloy and Foley and he is putting his faith in the next two debates to boost his numbers.
Despite not being able to attract any national money from gun-friendly states like Texas and not
participating in public campaign financing, Visconti continues to see a way to victory even as his
latest campaign report shows a negative balance of $2,515. His campaign filings fail to list
contributors or show aggregate amounts.
His opponents each have $6.5 million to spend, while Connecticut Forward, the main independent
PAC helping the governor has raised $3.5 million; Grow Connecticut, that is aligned with Foley, has
surged ahead again to $4.1 million.
"Probably 36 percent (of the vote)is the next governor," Visconti said, pointing to the 100,000-plus
palm cards he and his team have passed out.
Visconti, who is a contractor, said his "personality lends itself to negotiating," something he has
done for the past 40 years with other small businesses, architects, tenants, landlords and agencies
he has dealt with, unlike Foley who took over corporations.
"I articulate where we are going," Visconti said, and given the ups and downs of the construction
industry, he can relate to people who have suffered through the slow fight back from the recession.
"People want someone who feels their pain," he said.
Visconti criticizes Malloy not only for the changes in the gun laws, but he said he has failed to make
the systemic changes needed to pay pension debts and he disagrees with the tax credits given to
large businesses to spur job creation.
"He offers nothing but the status quo," he said.
On the issues, Visconti said he would give a figure to the state unions on how much he needs from
them to cut spending,
A no-layoff clause they had expires in June, while wage negotiations can begin in the fall of 2015, but
pensions and healthcare benefits are in place until 2022.
"I want the unions to find their own cuts," Visconti said. "It's to their benefit to work with us to
maintain their jobs."
He promises to play hardball with layoffs and oursourcing, if he can't get spending down.
Visconti said he understands the underfunded pensions are the failure of previous administrations to
fund them, but the unions now have to work with the state to rectify that in addition to changes
made in a contract with Malloy.
The petitioning candidate said he wants changes in the binding arbitration rules. "Towns can't be
held hostage," he said.
If he has to raise taxes, Visconti said he would boost the corporate tax on large corporations, but not
the income tax.
"We don't want to chase the wealthy away," he said.
Visconti criticized Foley for his promise to flat fund the budget, but not say where he would cut.
"Where is Tom Foley's magic wand. He shows no leadership," he said.
Visconti also would like to look into border tolls through an Easy Pass system if it would not greatly
increase congestion while under construction.
He would strictly use the revenue for transportation projects. Visconti also suggested an income tax
deduction for the cost of the tolls for commuters based on a slide-scaling to make it more equitable.
Visconti wants a night court set up so a request for a civil temporary restraining order in domestic
cases could be ajudicated immediately. He said his proposal protects due process and the rights of
gun owners.
Malloy and Foley favor the removal of firearms for those issued temporary restraining orders, rather
than waiting the two weeks it now takes to get a hearing and a full restraining order.
On prison reform, he favors mandated GED courses for prisoners aged 19-25 and training to give
them a skill, particularly in the building trades.
On undocumented immigrants, Visconti wants to "humanely" return them to their home country.
"We can't afford the education. We can't afford the health risk. It's financial, it's health, its'
unconstituional," he said.
The ability of a third candidate to impact the race was apparent in 2010, when Malloy won by only
6,404 votes over Foley, partially as the result of the 17,629 votes cast for Republican Tom Marsh,
who was on the Independent Party line. Malloy also had the benefit of the Working Families Party
which brought him 26,308 votes.
This year, Foley has been endorsed by the Independent Party, as well as the Republican Party, while
Malloy continues to have the Democratic Party and the Working Families Party behind him, but now
Visconti is in the mix.
"I have the ability to transcend state politics," he said and would not wholesale replace department
heads.
He already knows he would appoint Jonathan Pelto to head the education department given their
antipathy for the Common Core Standards, despite Pelto's liberal credentials. Pelto's efforts to get
on the ballot were unsuccessful.
On changing back the gun law, Visconti said he would first have a public hearing and horse trade
with lawmakers on what they want passed. He doesn't advocate arming teachers, but would have
armed security in every school with the state picking up part of the bill.